Lynley Marshal (Source: ADNews.com.au)
(Source: The Sydney Morning Herald)
“The chief for the ABC broadcasting into the Asia Pacific insists the taxpayer funded network has a growing audience with better programs on the way – despite reports the service is for the chop in the May budget.
ABC International boss Lynley Marshall stoutly defended overseas broadcasts as a way of promoting Australia, saying the spread of social media and mobile devices in Asia has vastly extended the potential audience.
She told a Melbourne audience on Monday evening the service had more than 1 million supporters on its Facebook page for learning theEnglish language.”
While this article doesn’t mention shortwave radio per se, it’s most interesting to see where Marshall must both defend Australian international broadcasting as a form of diplomacy while also defending the news agency when its reports are critical of the government.
There’s an inherent tension all international broadcasters face–at least, those that are tax-payer supported–as many try to transition from being purely a mouthpiece of the government to an example of free press and democracy.
I would not be in the least bit surprised to see shortwave get the axe in the May Aussie budget.
The current government is intent on cutting every possible thing known to mankind at the moment, the country is facing the largest social security bill ever known in Australia after Ford, Holden, Alcoa and Toyota all pulled the pin on manufacture in this country, what hope has shortwave radio got ?